7 Jan 04
 

 Hutchison 3G UK says that it has successfully completed the build and integration of its 5,000th radio base station.

These sites mean that 3 now has over 70% population coverage for its video mobile services in the UK, as well as over 98% voice coverage through its national roaming agreement.

In conjunction with its partners 3 has undertaken one of the fastest network rollouts in European telecoms history. Under contracts announced in April 2001, NEC is supplying the radio infrastructure for the southern half of the United Kingdom and Nokia is supplying the radio infrastructure for the Northern half.

The companies have implemented the Radio Access Network (RAN) and Radio Network Controller (RNC) equipment in each region respectively. The speed and scale of the deployment of the radio network is unprecedented in the mobile industry, with up to 200 base stations being installed per week.

David Cooper, CTO 3 UK said: "I am delighted to announce that we've integrated the 5,000th radio site into 3's network. This is a truly remarkable achievement as the network has been installed and optimised in just over two years, probably the fastest wireless rollout ever achieved in Europe. This coverage means that we have the capacity and the network to offer customers an unrivalled package of voice, data and video services."